The Reluctant Assistant - Book One

Tough Questions Part 44

Friday, Raymond and his group were waiting for the minibus to pick them up. Everybody was talking excitedly, when Connie came over to join them. She looked shyly at the group of people gathered. It was really an odd mix, she thought noticing that nowhere in sight was another executive. Just regular people going out on a Friday.

"You arrived!" Raymond called out, to which the others whooped, calling out to Connie in greeting. She gawked at Raymond who looked more like a teenager, dressed in his jeans, t-shirt and hoodie, laughing and joking with the others as if they were long friends. She started to relax, this doesn't seem so bad, she thought.

"Now, I'll pay for the food, if everybody takes a turn singing." Raymond offered looking at the group sitting around a large table, drinks in hand. "No singing, no eating." he grinned wide looking straight at Connie, who looked at him challengingly.

After their meal, they were all turned to the small stage set up for kareoke. The first few to go up were, completely off key, but they had fun belting out the songs at the top of their voices, to loud applause from the others. Raymond got up and dragged Connie with him.

"We're singing a duet!" he pushed the mic in her hand. "I just hope you can keep up with me." The others cheered and called their names as the music started. 

"That was fun." Connie  laughed as they moved back to their table. "Who knew you could sing like that." she smirked at him.

"You're not too bad yourself." he grinned back.

By the end of the evening, they were standing outside the bar, waiting for their ride. 

"We should do this again soon," Penny said, her face flushed from enjoyment. 

"We definitely should!" Raymond agreed with her. "What do you say Connie? Want to hang out with us again?"

"Sure, why not," she smiled. "Thanks Raymond, I had a really good time."

Waving them off, Raymond waited for a few moments before getting a cab home. Jackson wasn't very impressed with him spending a Friday with people from work and was becoming less happy with Raymond's vague and sketchy details of what's going on. Having Jackson around kept him sane, but it also put him in the line of fire if anything goes wrong with Damon and the current situation they were trying to resolve.

--

"Cook, we need to talk," Jackson approached the subject as they were sitting at breakfast. "You have to come clean with me about what's going on." his dark eyes held Raymond's concern clearly written over his face.

"Nothing's going on, Jackson. Why would you think that?" he stalled, hoping that Jackson didn't force him to explain.

"You're always at work and even when you're home, you're at work. We never get to spend any time together, except for inside and you're being more secretive than usual." Jackson had to get it off his chest. " You spend a lot of time on your phone, pacing around as if you're hyper stressed. And let's not forget how you'd just disappear at any time of the day or night" he reached for Raymond's hand across the table.

"I don't do that all the time, and we can go out this afternoon." Raymond tried to placate him.

"That's not the point Cook. You're keeping something from me and I want to know what it is!" Jackson was feeling frustrated. Raymond was skirting the issue again.

"Won't you just trust me this time? There are some tricky things to sort out at work." he knew that he was lying by not telling Jackson the truth, even though he told himself that in essence it was true that things at work were tricky.

"Cook, I love you, so please be honest with me. I've depended on you for so long and you've always let me, don't you think it's time that you lean on me?" It hurt him that Raymond was keeping something from him. From what he can tell and how tense Raymond was these days, something was worrying him more than usual.  

"Jackson, I'm not telling you because I love you and because I don't want to put you in a... let's say a compromising position." He really didn't want to get into this now, but he knew Jackson wasn't going to let go so easily this time.

"Okay, I'm going to tell you, what's going on. But this is where it stops Jackson. If what I'm saying leaves this room, then I can kiss my ass goodbye because my uncle would kill me first." He tried to impress upon Jackson the seriousness of what's happening.

"And now I'm looking two people who are working together to destabalise a company and steal it for themselves, and possibly have some other nefarious plan up their sleeves as a garauntee." Raymond finished after having filled Jackson in on what he needed to know. It would have been easier if he was on his own, but he'd insisted that he wanted to keep the man he loved by his side.

"But that's mad? Why does it sound like you're in danger staying there?  he quizzed looking at Raymond with worry.

"I'm not in any danger", he laughed. "I just don't want you to be caught in the middle of this mess. You do understand that, right? his concern clearly on his face for Jackson to see.

"So that is why you're suddenly working for your uncle? You're playing inquisitor and putting yourself in danger for him?" he shook his head, unable to believe what Raymond had just told him.

"I'm not in any danger, promise." Unfortunately, he knew that Damon's unstable ex-wife wouldn't be above employing unethical means to get what she wanted. "I just need to sift through a lot of things at the moment and I need to keep my personal life away from work."

"You've never done this before." he pressed. "You can still keep your personal life away from work, but that doesn't mean we have to go in hiding. I won't come to your offices at all or even call you when you're there, but I'm done hiding." he said emphatically. "We are a couple and we shouldn't let your work dictate what we can and cannot do."

"Okay," Raymond nodded after a moment's hesitation. "I'll do as you say. But, when there comes a time when I ask you to do something relating to my work, you have to promise to do just as I say, no argument."

"Why?" Raymond was being so enigmatic, it was worrying.

"Because my dearest Jackson, at some point the shit will hit the fan and I need you to be as far away from it as possible." he emphasized. "You have to promise me that, please? I'm only doing this so that neither you nor your company get involved with whatever takeover is going down."

"I promise." he agreed easily. Raymond wouldn't ask something like this if it wasn't important to him. He'd asked Raymond to lean on him and while this wasn't exactly what he'd meant, he still wanted help, even if in a small way. "As long as I can be with you, without hiding, I'll do anything you say." he grinned, kissing Raymond's hand

"So, what is it that you wanted to do today?" Raymond felt his phone buzz, as he was asking. Taking it out, he looked at the number and sighed. "What's up?" he asked whoever was on the other side of the call. "Does he know?" Jackson watched as Raymond listened, a frown creasing his brow. "Okay, I'm on my way. The usual procedure," he chuckled at something that was said and cut the call.

"What was that all about?" Jackson immediately pounced on him.

"I have to go and pick something up. Do you mind if we make a quick stop somewhere? Raymond got up to take his dishes to the sink. He still wasn't used to having a housekeeper doing everything and he knew that he'd never get used to it.

"What are we picking up?"

"If you keep asking questions, I'll go without you." Raymond warned him.

"Fine, be like that," Jackson snapped with a sour face.

"Come on, get ready. I'll take you out to lunch, as well." He hugged Jackson from behind, who was still seated at the table, kissing his neck.